Reviews tagging 'Animal cruelty'

What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher

50 reviews

librarymouse's review

adventurous challenging dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

This was a fast and interesting read. The first half of the book was a little slow, and the last half a little fast, but overall the pacing added to the element of mystery. It wasn't hard to guess where the story was going, in terms of the fungal poisoning, but smaller aspects of the mystery were still surprising.

Madeline having been dead since before the start of the events of the novel was an interesting twist. It makes a lot of sense looking back. It's also really neat how the integration of a language with so many pronouns into the plot through the character of Alex creates further interest and intrigue in how Maddie and Alex interact concerning the way she references the fungus as if it were a child. I don't have any particular love of Poe, beyond the general appreciation, but this was an engaging use of his premise.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders, Medical content, Animal cruelty, Terminal illness, Mental illness, Body horror, Death, Eating disorder, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, and Gore

Moderate: Suicide, War, Misogyny, and Vomit

I marked eating disorders as being a graphic description because of the ways in which the emaciated characters are explained in depth.

cowardlyteaman's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

Ouch

Unfortunately, this did not hold up to my expectations.

First of all, I don't see the need for this fictional world that Kingfisher has created. She spends valuable pages explaining a world that isn't relevant to her story. That's not to say that I don't like it, but I wish she would've chosen one or the other—fantasy novel or a short horror story.
Because the mystery doesn't really start until the book is nearly done. I never really got the feeling of something ominous or even anticipation for what happened next. Well, that isn't entirely true. The part about the rabbits really intrigued me! But Kingfisher's writing style here seems too—rushed. She's moved on to the next point before she ever lets the last impression set in. I want more detail—insight into the characters.
Still, I like that she writes a non-binary character without writing an LGBT novel. I'm gay myself—I have nothing against them, but representation in genres that aren't LGBT is important, I think. Normalises it.

Another thing I'd like to mention, is that I personally didn't like at all the part where the fungus learns to talk and speaks through Madeleine and stuff. It was boring, really. Felt cliché and wasn't actually eerie in the least.

Well, as a whole, I just think the mystery and horror never struck me. I very rarely read horror at all, but I do love Poe's work, so this disappointed me deeply.

However! Not a bad book. As I said, there were parts that intrigued me, but I'd really expected more of this book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, and Death

Moderate: Alcohol and Grief

Minor: Vomit, Transphobia, War, Misogyny, Sexism, and Suicide

thegayestghost's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Murder, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Medical content, and Terminal illness

tifftastic87's review against another edition

dark funny mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

 It took me a minute to decide if this was a 5 ⭐️. In the end because I had to think about it, it's not. But it's close. 

I really loved how the characters interact, especially Easton and Hob the horse. I like the simple use of pronouns woven into a made up foreign language and how the culture is heavily featured in Easton's character. I loved that there was an English woman who was a mycologist as one of the unlikely heroes. 

This was a fun story and I found myself wishing for more.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Blood, Suicide, Animal cruelty, Fire/Fire injury, Classism, Death, Alcohol, Animal death, and Body horror

Moderate: Gore and War

Minor: Vomit

karatics's review

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Mental illness, Medical content, Medical trauma, Panic attacks/disorders, Animal death, Chronic illness, Blood, Body horror, Gore, and Confinement

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Cancer, Gun violence, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Suicide attempt, Alcohol, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Suicide

vixenreader's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

A marvellous retelling of “The Fall of the House of Usher” with a twist on gender and the destructive aspect of nature upon the human body, this is one of the most spooky books I have read this year. I will never look at hares the same way again. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Chronic illness, Mental illness, Medical trauma, Medical content, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Terminal illness, Animal cruelty, Death, Gore, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Alcohol, Fire/Fire injury, Murder, War, and Violence

Minor: Drug use, Cursing, and Death of parent

Beware of strangulation, possession by parasitic fungus, fungi and mold, deterioration of property mirroring deterioration of the human body, infection, and drowning in pools of water.

tnm94's review

dark tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Chronic illness, Animal death, Death, and Animal cruelty

Minor: Misogyny and Transphobia

bunbobabe's review

adventurous dark funny mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Animal cruelty, and Terminal illness

Minor: Fire/Fire injury and War

remimicha's review

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Pandemic/Epidemic, Medical trauma, Medical content, Grief, Death, Chronic illness, Animal death, Injury/Injury detail, Animal cruelty, War, Violence, Body horror, and Alcohol

cady_sass's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

Wow, this is not what I expected at all! It’s really short but really effective. Gross and weird and spooky and all the right things. I can’t give it a full 5 stars because I don’t care for the ambiguous ending, but I can’t be more specific because the book is so short and everything would be a spoiler. Secondarily I don’t really understand the purpose of creating new pronouns (va/van) because it was NOT explained properly and made it difficult to follow as they used them sporadically. Otherwise, love it. And I’m a sucker for a great cover. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Suicide attempt, Suicide, Alcohol, Animal death, Blood, Murder, Animal cruelty, Body horror, and Injury/Injury detail

Drowning, supernatural